A 51-year-old man has been charged with practicing medicine without a license, including performing gynecological exams, and investigators said Friday they there may be as many as 300 victims. Salvatore Anthony D'Onofrio was arrested at his home Thursday afternoon following a weeklong investigation that began when one of his clients told police that she had been fondled during an exam, Police Sgt. Bob Rahaeuser said.

Lorraine Rothman, a founder of the feminist self-help clinic movement who demystified basic gynecology for thousands of women at centers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, died of cancer Sept. 25 at her home in Fullerton. She was 75. In 1971, Rothman, a teacher and mother of four, founded with Carol Downer the Los Angeles Feminist Women's Health Center, which taught women how to perform their own cervical self-examinations and pregnancy tests.

Asmall girl is brought to the doctor by her mother because she is complaining of pain in her "private area." After asking some questions, the doctor, who suspects vaginal lesions, says he'll have to take a closer look, possibly doing a pelvic exam. The mother is gripped with fear. How will this small girl endure such a grown-up exam? The doctor explains the procedure to the girl, who begins to cry.

Dr. William J. Dignam, 86, a founding member of UCLA's department of obstetrics and gynecology and a former senior associate dean for academic affairs at what is now the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, died Dec. 5 at UCLA Medical Center. The cause of death was not announced. "Dr. Dignam was an outstanding and gifted teacher and clinician who was a role model to many," said Dr. Gautam Chaudhuri, executive chairman of the obstetrics department. Born in Manchester, N.H.

A board-certified gynecologist at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center has been appointed associate professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at UC Irvine. Dr. Terence M. O'Heany, who has been a volunteer teacher at UCI for 10 years, is also the interim medical director of the Orange County Regional Cancer Center at the hospital. A board member of the Orange County Medical Assn.

Women who have frequent vaginal yeast infections can now obtain medication without a prescription. Gyne-Lotrimin can be purchased over the counter since its January approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Another medication, Monistat, also has been approved and should be available within the next week to 10 days. The federal agency occasionally honors requests from pharmaceutical companies to reclassify drugs if certain safety considerations are met.

While vaginal delivery by a woman who has had one previous Caesarean section has become an accepted option, physicians remain divided over the safety of vaginal delivery in a woman who has had multiple C-sections, fearing an increased risk of uterine rupture or serious scar separation. Now, doctors at Baylor College of Medicine report that 23 of 51 women with two previous C-sections had successful vaginal deliveries, according to Science News.

The recently instituted deflection program at UCI Medical Center has engendered heated debates, sometimes degenerating into unsubstantiated accusations and recriminations. As residents in obstetrics and gynecology, we have experienced the consequences of the enormous increase in the volume of deliveries. In a unit built to safely handle 250 deliveries per month, we have over the years seen this number climb steadily to as high as 550 deliveries per month. It has become an all-too-familiar scene to have women laboring and delivering in hallways and on gurneys.

Only about 1% of all abortions in the United States are performed at more than 20 weeks of pregnancy--the point at which the Supreme Court ruled Monday states may require testing to determine whether the fetus could survive outside the womb. For that reason, physicians said Monday that the court's endorsement of testing for so-called viability will affect few women. But they argued that such testing is unreliable and there is little evidence that most fetuses could survive before 24 to 26 weeks.

There's something almost comforting about A.R. Gurney's plays. So civilized and focused, they seem to discourage the world outside from intruding on their sentimental space. His small universe has rarely strayed from upstate New York, where his reflections on family, society and growing up have led to several popular works, including "Love Letters," 'The Cocktail Hour" and "The Dining Room." No surprise, then, that "Ancestral Voices" is true to that dewy tradition. The 1998 piece settled into the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Saturday night, providing a relaxed entertainment that built on Gurney's eye as a chronicler and a talented veteran cast under Gordon Hunt's direction.

A unit of Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos. has acquired the gynecology business unit of MedAmicus Inc. for $4.7 million, the companies said Wednesday. The acquisition by CooperSurgical Inc. is expected to add to Cooper's earnings per share at the end of 12 months. Cooper's shares rose $1.35 to $44.05 on the New York Stock Exchange, while MedAmicus stock was off 10 cents a share, closing at $5.15 in Nasdaq trading.

For years, gynecologists have been quietly telling their patients who take birth control pills that they can avoid menstruating while on their honeymoon or on vacation simply by skipping the seven placebo pills and starting right in on the next packet. Now, however, some women are going far beyond this onetime, "special occasion" skipping of a period and opting to have just three or four periods a year. Still others are stopping menstruation altogether.

For Michele Green, the blood loss was intolerable. The Wantagh, N.Y., woman found that one menstrual cycle seemed to continue into the next, unabated. She was anemic and grew weak. How to cope with what certainly could result in a hysterectomy posed a dilemma, because Green, 47, like many women who experience troublesome fibroids, wanted to avoid the surgery and its debilitating aftermath.

For women, the annual visit to the gynecologist has long been considered essential to good health. But many women are forgoing their annual checkups or, when they do get to the doctor, are not receiving basic preventive care recommended by medical experts. A new national survey has found that among women who visited their gynecologist during the last two years, a startling 94% do not receive all the tests and counseling recommended for their age group.

After getting a favorable signal from Gov. Pete Wilson, the state Senate on Thursday approved a managed care reform bill that would give more women direct access to obstetricians and gynecologists. The bill, virtually identical to one Wilson vetoed last summer, was passed on a bipartisan 30-3 vote and moves to the Assembly. The lower chamber is expected to send it to Wilson in the next week or so. Wilson's spokeswoman said the governor "favors the concept" of the bill by Assemblywoman Susan A.

In an effort to reduce the nation's rising number of births by Caesarean section, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Wednesday called on doctors to encourage women who have had C-sections to attempt normal, vaginal births with their next children. The new guidelines, which seek to dispel the "once a C-section, always a C-section" myth, laid out for the first time explicit conditions in which vaginal births are preferable, according to Dr.

The growing shortage of physicians performing abortions in the United States prompted a group of doctors and public-health experts Tuesday to call for an overhaul of doctor-training programs and a nationwide push for physicians to include abortion in their practices.

Authorities are expanding their investigation into the practices of self-proclaimed holistic healer Salvatore Anthony D'Onofrio, saying at least 11 more women have reported that he engaged in sexual misconduct. But an attorney for D'Onofrio said Tuesday that his client is the victim of misguided investigators who do not understand or appreciate alternative medical techniques.